‘For they wanted us to serve them’:

Female Monasticism in
Medieval Transylvania

Carmen Florea*

I
n 1406, Innocent VII issued a letter to the archbishop of Esztergom.
Accor­ding to the papal bull, Elizabeth, Margaret, another Elizabeth,
Gertrud, and Catherine — Cistercian nuns in the monastery from Braşov
(Kronstadt, Brassó) — had complained about the difficulties they had to face
and appealed to the papal curia for a solution. Because they wished to embrace
religious life, from their own income and with the help of other pious people,
these women built a house next to the chapel of St Catherine, entered into the
Cistercian Order, and lived in that house under the supervision of the abbot
of a nearby Cistercian monastery. After a while, however, the abbot, some of
the Cistercian monks, and the parish priest of the town had started to offend
them. The women were forced to leave the house they had built, some of their
belongings were confiscated by their persecutors, and the abbot even took away
the Order’s habit from them. All of this happened because they did not want
to cook for the monks or take care of their gardens; as the letter describes, they
did not want to do such work appropriate only for those engaged in domestic
service. Because they did not want to live in apostasy, they took the habit of the
Benedictine nuns. A solution was found to their complaint, as a papal envoy

 
* This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Re­
search, CNCS – UEFISCDI, (project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0359, code 225/2011).

Carmen Florea (carmenflorea2008@gmail.com) is a teaching assistant in the faculty of His­

tory and Philosophy, Department of Medieval, Early Modern, and Art History, Babeş-Bolyai
Uni­ver­sity of Cluj, Romania.

Women in the Medieval Monastic World, ed. by Janet Burton and Karen Stöber pp. 211–227
MMS 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015)        BREPOLS PUBLISHERS        10.1484/M.MMS-EB.5.107548
212 Carmen Florea

was sent to settle the affair. The women were received back into the Cistercian
Order and the abbot from the nearby monastery of Cârţa (Kercz) was obliged
to appoint a monk to take care of them ‘in spiritualibus et in temporalibus’.
Finally, the pope confirmed the restoration of their status, and the women
returned to their house and to their lives within the Cistercian Order.1
Why would this example be relevant for an analysis devoted to female
monasticism in medieval Transylvania? On the one hand, it illustrates the ten-
sions between women wishing to assume a religious role and the clergy under
whose supervision they would have to fulfil that role. The notorious reluctance
of the First Order regarding the provision of material and spiritual assistance
for the female religious associated with their Order would partly explain the
fate of the Cistercian nuns from Braşov.2 On the other hand, this example is
also relevant because it reveals the efforts made by female religious within an
urban environment, as their way of life was not only opposed by the Cistercian
monks, but also by the ecclesiastical elite of the town, represented by the parish
priest. In what follows, therefore, I will discuss female monasticism in medi-
eval Transylvania at the intersection between particular, local contexts and the
more general policy that religious orders designed in order to integrate women
into the religious life.
Before embarking on this, however, it should be mentioned that the sur-
viving Transylvanian source material seriously limits the extent to which one
can offer a detailed analysis of this subject. The spread of evangelical ideas
greatly disturbed religious life in Transylvania. For example, in the year 1556
the authorities decided that all religious orders must be expelled from this
region and their properties confiscated. As a result, the libraries and archives
of monasteries and convents suffered severe losses, and in the churches of the
religious orders, altarpieces were destroyed and murals were whitewashed. The
houses of female communities were also seriously affected, the majority of the
buildings being transformed to serve diverse purposes, such as schools or even

1 
Zsigmondkori oklevéltár, ed. by Mályusz, i, 576–77, doc. 4698.
2 
For example, in 1228 the General Chapter prohibited the Friars Preachers to undertake
responsibilities regarding the female houses affiliated with them because it prevented the friars
from accomplishing their ministry; Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, pp. 263–65. Further
decisions were formulated by the Dominican governing body which aimed at severely limiting the
friars’ interaction with the nuns: thus, in 1321 the General Chapter asked the priors to nominate
those who would guide the nuns, specifying that this could also be very well accomplished by
the secular clergy, whilst in 1462 it was agreed that only old priests could visit the Dominican
nunneries. On this, see Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order, pp. 387–97.
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 213

ware­houses.3 Thus, one is forced to rely on a rather limited number of textual

sources to attempt to reconstruct the fate of female monastic life according to
the information they provide.
To begin, the main characteristic features of medieval Transylvania should
be reviewed. The region, located on the margins of Latin Christendom, was
part of the Hungarian kingdom, and it was inhabited by ethnically diverse
groups, such as Germans, Hungarians, Sezeklers, and Romanians. The popula-
tion’s religious affiliation with either the Western or the Eastern Church further
contributed to the cultural diversity that prevailed in the area. Christianization
was a belated process as compared with other parts of Latin Christendom, the
Transylvanian diocese and the network of the parish churches being established
only after the year 1000.4
This ecclesiastical network was completed by traditional religious orders,
such as the Benedictines and the Premonstratensians, who are attested in the
course of the thirteenth century. By royal initiative, a Benedictine abbey was
founded in Cluj-Mănăştur (Kolozsmonostor, Abtsdorf ) and a Cistercian one
in Cârţa.5 Despite having a short-lived existence, two female monasteries of
the Premonstratensian Order were recorded by the surviving sources in the
first half of the thirteenth century, whereas a house of the Benedictine Order
had also been functioning in the episcopal town of Alba-Iulia (Gyulafehérvár,
Weissenburg ).6 Whilst our knowledge of the female monasteries is severely
limited by the sources that survive, we can still see that the Premonstratensian
houses were most likely founded as part of the formation of the towns of Sibiu
(Hermannstadt, Nagyszeben) and Braşov, and the related institutionalization
of the Christian religion there.7
Unlike the situation in other parts of Latin Christendom, medieval Tran­syl­
vania was predominantly characterized by a limited presence of the traditional

3 
Rusu and others, Dicţionarul mănăstirilor, pp. 47–49, 54–55, 67–69, 80–82, 105–08,
119–20, 169–70, 172–75, 186–87, 198, 232, 234–37, 242–44, 251, 260–62, 266–67, 280–81.
4 
Kristó, ‘The Bishoprics of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary’. The parochial network
can be reconstructed by using the tithe registers compiled at the beginning of the fourteenth
century and published by Beke, ‘Erdélyi egyházmegye képe a xiv. század elején’.
5 
Rusu and others, Dicţionarul mănăstirilor, pp. 96–99 and 114–18.
6 
Binder, ‘Unele probleme referitoare la prima menţiune documentară a Braşovului’,
pp. 126–29; Huttmann and Prox, ‘Corona-Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Kronstadt’, p. 8;
and Romhányi, Kolostorok és társaskáptalanok a középkori Magyarországon, p. 29.
7 
For the role played by the Premonstratensian Order in the Christianization of central
and eastern Europe, see Netzwerk des Glaubens.
214 Carmen Florea

religious orders, the example of the female monasteries of the Benedictines and
Cistercians accurately demonstrating this pattern. However, things were dif-
ferent concerning the female branches of the mendicant orders. The success of
these new religious orders, particularly the Dominicans and Franciscans, has
long been acknowledged in existing research. This situation has been given
several explanations. There was, on the one hand, the proximity of non-Chris-
tian groups, such as the Cumans and Tatars, which stimulated the mendicant
apostolate. On the other hand, another explanation derives from the largely
monoparochial profile of the majority of Transylvanian towns, which for most
of the Middle Ages had only single parish churches.8
Highly illustrative in this regard are the most important towns of the region,
such as Sibiu, Braşov, Cluj (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg ), and Bistriţa (Bistriz,
Beszterce), which became free royal towns in the course of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. This was a privileged status which allowed the citizens not
only to elect the urban magistracy but also the parish priest. Furthermore,
given the fact that these towns were ethnically homogenous, being inhabited
predominantly by a German population, it has been considered that the func-
tioning of a single parish church which gradually became supervised by the city
council enforced the cohesion of these urban communities.9
At the same time, it must be mentioned that urbanization was a belated pro-
cess in this region as compared to other territories of Western Europe, a pro-
cess which in fact appealed to the mendicant ministry keen to become engaged
in the evangelization of the urban population.10 As a result, the first convents
founded by the Dominicans and Franciscans were located in the major urban
centres of Sibiu, Braşov, Cluj, and Bistriţa, where the friars had already man-
aged to establish their houses in the course of the thirteenth century. The great-
est part of the Dominican priories was founded before the second half of the

8 
Dobre, ‘The Mendicants’ Mission in an Orthodox Land’, pp. 226–34. The functioning
of the parish churches in Transylvanian towns is discussed by de Cevins, L’Église dans les villes
hongroises, esp. pp. 38–44 and pp. 157–65.
9 
Several decisions taken by the city councils of Sibiu and Bistriţa, such as those from
1432, 1457, and 1504, established the type of divine services to be celebrated in the parish
churches of these towns and regulated the administration of pious donations made to these
institutions; see Gündisch, ‘Hermmanstädter Messestiftungen im 15. Jahrhundert’, and
Teutsch, Geschichte der evangelische Kirche in Siebenbürgen, i, 149–51.
10 
Le Goff, ‘Apostolat mendiant et fait urbain dans la France médiévale’. Fügedi, ‘Kol­dulóren­
dek és városfejlődés Magyarországon’, has discussed the extent to which the assumptions made by
Le Goff regarding the relationship between the mendicant orders and urbanization are confirmed
by the settlement and development of these religious orders in the kingdom of Hungary.
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 215

fourteenth century, while those belonging to the Friars Minor were established
at an accelerated rate in the course of the fifteenth century, particularly after the
creation of the Observant branch of the Friars Minor.11
The female houses belonging to the Friars Preachers and the Friars Minor
were a belated presence in Transylvania, the Dominican nunneries being
attested only from the second half of the fifteenth century. There is no doubt
that these foundations can be connected with the reformation of the most
important Dominican priories through the adoption of Observant ideals.12 As
the chronology testifies, all the houses of the Dominican Second Order from
Cluj, Sighişoara (Schässburg, Segesvár), Bistriţa, Braşov, and Sibiu were estab-
lished after the reformation of the corresponding male convents.13 This would
suggest that the well-known rule of founding a female house only when a male
convent was already in place was applied to Transylvania in as much as the prio-
ries were adopting the Observant ideals.14
The case of the Franciscan female houses presents some marked differ-
ences to the Dominican ones. The existence of Poor Clare nunneries is con-
firmed by the surviving sources for the town of Cluj, but the functioning of
those from Braşov is still a matter of debate within current scholarship.15 Yet,
the Observant Franciscans were very successful in integrating women through

11 
Karácsonyi, Szent Ferencz rendjének története Magyarországon 1711-ig, pp. 310–56.
12 
In the fifth decade of the fifteenth century, Jacob Riecher was sent to Transylvania by
the Holy See in order to reform the Dominican houses. As part of his missionary activities,
the convents of Sibiu, Cluj, Braşov, and Bistriţa were reformed; Harsányi, A Domonkosrend
Magyarországon a reformáció előtt, pp. 35–39.
13 
The Dominican nunnery of Cluj was first mentioned in 1450, that of Bistriţa in 1476,
that of Sighişoara in the last decade of the fifteenth century, and those of Braşov and Sibiu in
1502; Iványi, ‘Geschichte des Dominikanerordens’, pp. 25, 30, 37.
14 
Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order, pp. 378–88. The most interesting case
is that of Sibiu, where the Dominican priory founded in the course of the thirteenth century
was located outside the town’s fortifications and as a result was severely damaged in the first half
of the fifteenth century due to the Ottoman attacks. The friars tried for almost three decades to
obtain a site inside the city walls, but this happened only in 1474. The successful relocation of
the priory has been connected to the adoption of Observant ideals. Significantly enough, soon
afterwards, the Dominican nunnery of St Mary Magdalene was founded in Sibiu; see Salontai,
Mănăstiri dominicane din Transilvania, pp. 216–18.
15 
Karácsonyi, Szent Ferencz rendjének története Magyarországon 1711–ig, ii, 19, argues
that in Braşov there was only a house of the Third Order and not a Poor Clare nunnery. How­
ever, Rusu and others, Dicţionarul mănăstirilor, pp. 79–80, claim that in Braşov there was a
Poor Clare nunnery attested in 1486 and a tertiary house attested in 1534.
216 Carmen Florea

the network of the houses belonging to the Third Order. To this success
undoubtedly contributed the missions undertaken in this region by notewor-
thy Observant Franciscans, particularly John of Capistran.16 As a result, the
number of houses of the Third Order significantly outnumbered those of the
Poor Clare nunneries, a situation well reflected by the Transylvanian experi-
ence, where no less than ten such establishments are mentioned in the surviving
sources, predominantly in the first half of the sixteenth century.17 One should
also take into account that by the late Middle Ages, the Third Order became in
many respects similar to a traditional monastic order and with a predominantly
female membership. These features are largely reflected by the tertiaries from
the kingdom of Hungary, where, as it has been observed, the Third Order gath-
ered exclusively women who led an enclosed, monastic way of life.18
Let me return now to the more general context within which Transylvanian
female monasticism was shaped. It has been discussed above that mendicant
success was prompted by the feeble parochial network and was reflected by
the large number of houses the Friars Preachers and Friars Minor managed to
establish. The priories and the female communities affiliated with the friars
surpassed in each locality the number of parish churches, a situation which in
fact opened up possibilities for a better integration of lay religious life.19 To be
sure, however, the Transylvanian parish churches seriously competed with the
mendicants, and the parochial clergy did not hesitate to appeal to the Holy
See in order to protect their pre-eminence over the cure of souls. It is surely
not coincidental that such conflicts recorded by our sources concern the most
important towns and were formulated with regard to the administration of
confession and burials by the friars.20

16 
Andrić, The Miracles of St John Capistran, pp. 16–25. On John of Capistran’s contri­
bu­tion to the emergence and official approval of the Third Order Regular, see Matanić, ‘Il
“Defensorium Tertii Ordinis Beati Francisci” di San Giovanni da Capestrano’, pp. 45–57.
17 
De Cevins, L’Église dans les villes hongroises, pp. 304–07, has explained the growth in the
number of the houses of the Third Order by both the poor representation of Poor Clare nunneries
and the late urbanization of the region which prompted the organization of the tertiaries. Houses
of the Third Order were attested in the following Transylvanian localities: Albeşti (1535), Bistriţa
(1531), Braşov (1534), Cluj (1522), Coşeiu (1507), Mediaş (1525), Orăştie (1334), Suseni
(1535), Tirgu Mureş (1503), and Teiuş (1520). See Rusu and others, Dicţionarul mănăstirilor.
18 
Pásztor, ‘Per la storia dell’esperienza penitenziale francescana in Ungheria nel medioevo’,
p. 121; Kollányi, ‘Magyar ferencrendiek’, p. 415.
19 
De Cevins, L’Église dans les villes hongroises, p. 328
20 
In 1460 for several months members of the Dominican confraternity from Cluj protes­
ted against their parish priest, who prevented burials by Friars Preachers, whereas the conflicts
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 217

When seeing this competition from a broader perspective, it should be men-

tioned that the friars’ apostolate did not only resemble the activity of the parish
church in what concerns pastoral care.21 The Transylvanian examples accurately
prove that the mendicant ministry intensified precisely when lay religious life
became better integrated with the parochial network through the function-
ing of devotional fellowships and the religious goals the guilds pursued in the
parish churches. Evidence for such associations dates predominantly from
the second half of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the sixteenth,
at the time when the majority of confraternities organized by the friars was
also attested.22 But, as was previously discussed, this was precisely the time
when the majority of the houses of the Second Order and Third Order were
founded in Transylvania. It can be considered, therefore, that the adoption of
the Observant ideals and the growing competition with the parish must have
encouraged the friars to institutionalize women’s religious life.
But who were those who were becoming nuns or tertiaries? There are not
many instances recorded by our sources which reveal such choices, but based
on the available information it can be suggested that recruitment in Dominican
nunneries was particularly targeted at young, unmarried women, whereas that
of the tertiaries consisted almost exclusively of widows. For example, in the year
1485 a Transylvanian nobleman, Thomas Farkas from Herina, lavishly endowed
the Dominican nunnery of Bistriţa, a pious gesture which was common at
that time in the region.23 Interestingly enough, two decades later, his daughter
Catherine is among the nuns mentioned by her father in his deathbed bequest.24

between the mendicants and the parochial clergy in Bistriţa were solved by papal mediation:
see Gross, Confreriile medievale în Transilvania, pp. 170–80, and A Kolozsmonostori Konvent
jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 569, doc. 1465; p. 570, doc. 1466; and p. 571, doc. 1470; Ur­
kundenbuch, ed. by Zimmermann and others, vi, 84, docs 3225 and 3226; pp. 517–18, doc. 568.
21 
Mertens, ‘Clero secolare e cura d’anima nella città del tardo medioevo’, pp. 262–63.
22 
Several confraternities, such as those of Corpus Christi, the Virgin Mary, St Catherine,
and St Mary Magdalene, were attested in the parish churches of Cluj, Sibiu, Braşov, and
Bistriţa, particularly from the fifteenth century onwards. Based on the guild statutes drafted in
the second half of the fifteenth century, the guilds of the tailors, tanners, blacksmiths, weavers,
furriers maintained altars in the parish churches of Cluj and Braşov and became engaged in
the liturgical services performed there. This was precisely the time when the functioning of the
fellowships organized with the Dominicans of Cluj, Sighişoara, and Bistriţa were also recorded;
Gross, Confreriile medievale în Transilvania, pp. 170–80 and 245–69.
23 
Lupescu Makó, ‘Item lego…: Gifts for the Soul in Late Medieval Transylvania’; Urkunden­
buch, ed. by Zimmermann and others, vii, 388, doc. 4592.
24 
A Kolozsmonostori Konvent jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 225, doc. 3272.
218 Carmen Florea

It cannot be ascertained whether his daughter was already affiliated with the
Second Order at the time of this donation; if this were the case, he might have
been aiming to provide for her support. Yet, as we can see from a last will issued
in 1520, it seems that youth was indeed a prerequisite for those wishing to join
the Dominican Second Order.
The document I have alluded to above was issued by Dorothy, widow of
Martin Cruez from Braşov, on behalf of the Dominican friars from Sighişoara.
Accord­ing to the testamentary clauses drawn up by this widow, she provided
the friars with sufficient funds to support a chapel being built in their church
and dedicated to five saints: the Virgin Mary, St Dominic, St Francis, St Rupert,
and St Ulrich.25 As the association of the founders of the two most important
mendicant orders is peculiar in the titular dedication of this establishment
founded with the Friars Preachers, one wonders what might have motivated
Dorothy when making this selection. As seen in the document, she wished to
become a Dominican nun but was unable to because of her widowhood. Since
Dorothy wanted to prevent worldly life from having a negative effect on her
chances of salvation, and since the prospect of accomplishing her goal could
not be achieved by becoming a member of the Dominican Second Order, she
chose to be a penitent of St Francis instead.
It is therefore her adjustment to the available institutional options which
made Dorothy pair, in the patronal dedication of the chapel she founded, two
saints which would otherwise be unlikely to appear side by side. The testament
of 1520 is also important because it gives further weight to the idea that in late
medieval Transylvania those wishing to be affiliated with the Friars Preachers
must indeed be young and unmarried women. In fact, the examples that have
been analysed have not only the merit of clarifying issues concerning recruit-
ment in the Dominican Second Order, but also of highlighting that this path
was, to be sure, a desirable choice for female religious.26
As for those wishing to pursue their devotional goals with the Franciscans,
either as Poor Clare nuns or tertiaries, in the light of the surviving sources it
seems that not youth but adulthood was a requirement to be met. When in
1531, Magdalene, a Franciscan tertiary from Cluj, drafted her testament she
was already a widow, as also were those elected as executors of her testamentary

25 
Fabritius, ‘Zwei Funde in der ehemaligen Dominikanerkirche zu Schässburg’, pp. 16–17,
doc. xx.
26 
At Bistriţa the master general of the Order of the Friars Preachers had to limit the
enrollments into the Second Order in 1506 to twenty-two members; Iványi, ‘Geschichte des
Dominikanerordens’, p. 36.
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 219

clauses, who were mentioned as belonging to the Third Order.27 This status is
further proven by another Dorothy, who, being of old age and gravely ill, lived
as a tertiary in Tg. Mures.28 Albeit in an indirect manner, the vulnerable condi-
tion of becoming affiliated with the Third Order is revealed by a decision taken
at the provincial chapter of the Franciscans held in Oradea in 1542. There, it
was decided that as a result of a request reiterated several times by the parish
priest, the city council, and the citizens of the town of Mediaş, a young girl was
accepted to join the sisters of St Francis.29
Based on this information it can be argued that not only adulthood but
also a certain social standing eased integration with the Friars Minor. This was,
for example, the case with a married woman who decided together with her
husband that she would become a nun of the Poor Clares, whereas he would
become a Franciscan friar.30 The two agreed to leave all their valuables to their
relatives who would then raise their son, a decision which might indeed be con-
sidered as proof of their attachment to the way of life to be followed along-
side the friars and nuns. Whilst this example speaks about adulthood, pros-
perity, and perhaps selfishness, another case reveals that sometimes those in
need might find with the Second Order a suitable place to live. Because of her
serious illness, a certain Anne sold her property and became affiliated with the
religious women from the Order of St Francis in Cluj.31
To be sure, these individual cases do not allow us to define definite pat-
terns according to which recruitment to the Second and Third Order was
made. They create rather a composite picture which displays, in the case of the
Dominican nuns, youth and wealth, the latter feature being coupled in the case
of the Franciscan Second and Third Order with widowhood and, more gener-
ally speaking, with social vulnerability. But what was the life that these women,
as well as dozens of others whose names and motivations remained unknown
to us, led in their houses? What were the exigencies they had to deal with in
order to attain perfection of their devotional endeavours, once they passed the
formal requirements?

27 
Monumenta Ecclesiastica tempora innovatae, ed. by Bunyitay, Rapaics, and Karácsonyi,
i: 1520–1529, pp. 178–81, doc. 159.
28 
A Kolozsmonostori Konvent jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 225–26, doc. 3273.
29 
Monumenta Ecclesiastica tempora innovatae, ed. by Bunyitay, Rapaics, and Karácsonyi,
i, 499
30 
A Kolozsmonostori Konvent jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 391, doc. 3846.
31 
A Kolozsmonostori Konvent jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 648, doc. 4808.
220 Carmen Florea

First of all, it should be said that with the implementation of Observant ide-
als in the Transylvanian male convents and the foundation of the Dominican
nunneries in its aftermath, the rules of strict enclosure, asceticism, and a
penitential way of life were reinforced.32 The best illustration of this policy is
reflected by the patrocinia of the Dominican nunneries of Cluj and Sibiu. That
great emphasis was indeed being laid on the revival of asceticism in the way of
life that the Observant Dominicans sought to impose is demonstrated by the
choice of hermit saints for the convents of Cluj. Reformed in the mid-fifteenth
century, the priory, initially dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was given a second
patron, St Anthony. By selecting the First Hermit to protect the friary of Cluj,
the Observant Dominicans ingeniously and unambiguously reflected in titular
dedication the restoration of an ideal religious life.
At the same time, another hermit, St Egidius, was chosen as patron of the
Dominican nunnery of the town. Renowned for his asceticism and for the isola-
tion and solitude in which he lived, Egidius also became the protector of those
truly repenting their sins through confession. It was specifically for this latter
quality that Egidius became a specialized protector within the groups of the
Fourteen Holy Helpers. At the same time, the ideal of sainthood represented
by Egidius was also an embodiment of what a Dominican nun must achieve, as
she had to live cloistered, in isolation, and do penance. Visual representations
of St Egidius, dressed in monastic habit and depicted as a Holy Helper, as well
as those surviving from an altarpiece most likely belonging to the Dominican
church of Sighişoara, testify to the adoption of this cult by the Observant
Dominicans because it fitted well with the ideals they strove to implement in
the female houses of their Order.33
Of similar importance in this regard is the titular dedication of another
Dominican nunnery, that of Sibiu, which was under the patronage of Mary
Magdalene. Adopted and assiduously propagated by the mendicant friars, the
saint par excellence of the penitents, Mary Magdalene became emblematic for
women in the monastic life, the example of Sibiu being thus an integral part of
numerous similar European cases.34 Connection to the reform movement is also

32 
Huffmann, ‘Inside and Outside the Convent Walls’.
33 
Firea, ‘Polipticul din Sighişoara — un retablu dominican?’; Nagy Sarkadi, ‘Szent
Mártonnak szentelt szárnyasoltár Segesvárról’; Richter and Richter, Siebenbürgische Flügel­
altäre, pp. 165–69; Vătăşianu, Istoria artei feudale în Ţările Române, i, 795–97.
34 
Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen, see esp. Part I, ‘The Mendicant Magdalen’,
pp. 44–227. The Dominican adoption of the cult of Mary Magdalene is also illustrated by the
foundations which she was called to patronize. For example, in the diocese of Spoleto over the
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 221

detectable, as the nunnery of Mary Magdalene was established at the very end
of the fifteenth century and was a foundation which must have occurred in the
aftermath of the adoption of the Observant ideals by the Dominican priory.35
Therefore, the understanding of local circumstances, derived from the his-
tory of the Dominican Order in Transylvania, offers insights into the way of
life led by women affiliated with the Dominican Second Order. Enclosure and
penitence were thought to pave the way towards the achievement of Christian
perfection, and it can be argued that this has indeed become a hallmark of
the nuns’ piety. According to surviving testamentary clauses, the Dominican
nuns were employed in the economy of salvation by being commissioned to
carry out commemorative prayers.36 From the last will issued by Magdalene,
the Franciscan tertiary from Cluj mentioned above, it can be argued that the
Dominicans of the town specialized in mediating Marian protection through
their prayers.37 Their engagement in liturgical practices seems to have been
of constant concern, as the charter that informs us about the functioning of
the Dominican nunnery in Cluj specified that the prioress sold some liturgi-
cal books which were of no more use to her congregation.38 As such, when
Magdalene asked several decades later that the sisters of the Friars Preachers
would have to chant for her the Salve Regina antiphon, it can be suggested that
the life they pursued within the walls of their nunnery had transformed them
into valuable intercessory vehicles.
Magdalene’s example, the confratrissa of the Observant Franciscans from
Cluj, also deserves to be examined in some detail, and not only from the point
of view of the religious options she devised according to the Dominican Order,
or the parish church that was, as discussed above, lavishly endowed in her testa-
ment. In fact, a thorough reading of this document could help us get a more
nuanced understanding of the religious life and devotional motivations of the
women associated with the Friars Minor. Magdalene belonged to the urban

course of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, not even the Virgin Mary acquired so many
patrocinia of Dominican houses of the Second Order as Mary Magdalene, whereas in Germany
the entire Order of the Penitents of St Mary Magdalene, consisting of more than forty houses,
was affiliated in 1287 with the Friars Preachers. See Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican
Order, p. 378.
35 
Salontai, Mănăstiri dominicane din Transilvania, p. 225.
36 
Urkundenbuch, ed. by Zimmermann and others, vii, 388, doc. 4592.
37 
Monumenta Ecclesiastica tempora innovatae, ed. by Bunyitay, Rapaics, and Karácsonyi,
i, 180, doc. 159.
38 
A Kolozsmonostori Konvent jegyzőkönyvei, ed. by Jakó, i, 402, doc. 828.
222 Carmen Florea

world of craftsmen, being the widow of one of the masons who most likely
worked on the construction of the Observant Franciscan church in Cluj.39 Her
testament details at length her concerns for her soul, which is entrusted first of
all to the prayers of the Franciscan friars with whom she wanted to be buried,
and then to the Dominican friars, the Dominican nuns, and the parish clergy.
What it is striking, however, is the amount of valuables, money, and prop-
erty, including her house, furniture, dishware, silver objects, and clothing that
she bequeathed. There are no less than fifteen such clauses which carefully spec-
ify how these goods were to be used: for which altars and chapels, as well as for
Dominican and Franciscan friars, nuns and tertiaries, and also the poor. One is
given the impression that Magdalene acted as a housewife who, whilst leaving
behind her former way of life, was diligently planning her future one. Among
the fifteen regulations of her last will that were meant to provide for liturgical
vestments, altar cloths, and restoration or decoration of altarpieces, ten con-
cerned the Observant Franciscan church and within it the chapel used by the
tertiaries.40 Thus, Magdalene disposed of her wealth and domestic comfort by
transforming it and adapting it to the sacred space where she would live a new,
different life as tertiary.
The abandonment of worldly life seems to have been rather a process of con-
verting it to the requirements of the Third Order as suggested by the analysis of
Magdalene’s last will. When investigating the Third Order regulations drafted
in the third decade of the sixteenth century by the Observant Franciscans, to
be followed by the pious women, this idea seems to emerge even more clearly.
Whilst the tertiaries lived a common life in a house usually placed near a male
convent, measures were taken to limit their interaction with those from the
outside. They were allowed to beg only from their closest relatives and not from
strangers, and when going to the church there had to be at least two of them,
whereas conversation with laypeople could happen only after permission was
granted by their superior, the so-called prelata.41
This gradual detachment from the world was accompanied by obedience
to the exigencies of a religious behaviour, which consisted of daily praying
one hundred Pater Nosters in the memory of Christ’s suffering and one hun-
dred Ave Marias in veneration of the Virgin. Devotion to Christ was further

39 
Entz and Kovács, A Kolozsvári Farkas utcai templom címerei, pp. 9–11.
40 
Monumenta Ecclesiastica tempora innovatae, ed. by Bunyitay, Rapaics, and Karácsonyi,
i, 178–81, doc. 159.
41 
Kollányi, ‘Magyar ferencrendiek’, pp. 912–14.
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 223

endorsed by requiring each tertiary to flagellate herself every Friday and to wear
cilicium. Focus on and development of personal piety is further revealed by the
daily recitation of prayers to the Virgin Mary and St Francis.42
Self-denial and repentance thus shaped the life of these religious women.
This is also reflected by the so-called codex Teleki, which not only enumerated
the regulations of the Third Order but also explained them.43 This codex was
compiled by a Franciscan friar for the use of his sister who was a beguine in the
house of Tg. Mureş (Marosvásárhely, Neumarkt). Interestingly enough, this work
seems to have been aiming at the religious education of the tertiaries. The regula-
tions were but one part of it. Another part of equal interest and importance was
represented by the legends it contained. Among them, there was an extant ver-
sion of a Franciscan legend of St Anne.44 It can be argued that its inclusion was
not by chance. The Virgin’s mother became a popular saintly figure at the end of
the Middle Ages, particularly among the urban population; women from towns
easily identified in Anne how reconciliation of wealth and involvement in family
life with the exigencies of Christian perfection could be achieved.45 Therefore, as
one could learn from confratrissa Magdalene, leaving behind a certain way of life
and attempting to accommodate oneself in the requirements of the life of the
Third Order seems to have indeed been dealt with by the Franciscan friars, and
solutions to this adjustment were ingeniously devised.
At this point it might be useful to return to those Cistercian nuns whose
example was discussed at the beginning of this analysis. The functioning of the
female monastery of the Cistercian Order in Braşov seems to have continued
without difficulties until 1474, when King Mathias decided to dissolve the
Cistercian monastery at Cârţa. The king then decided that the female commu-
nity from Braşov would be placed under the spiritual guidance of a chaplain
who would be appointed by the city council of Sibiu.46 However, it seems that
the councillors did not take seriously this responsibility, as a few years later the
magistracy of Braşov applied to the king himself, complaining about the fact
that no chaplain had been sent to serve in the chapel of St Catherine, which as
a result was in very poor condition.47

42 
Kollányi, ‘Magyar ferencrendiek’, p. 915.
43 
Régi magyar codexek és nyomtatványok, ed. by Volf, xii, 400–03.
44 
Horváth, A magyar irodalmi műveltség kezdetei, pp. 202–18.
45 
Sheingorn, ‘Appropriating the Holy Kinship: Gender and Family History’.
46 
Urkundenbuch, ed. by Zimmermann and others, vii, 17–19, doc. 4005.
47 
Urkundenbuch, ed. by Zimmermann and others, vii, 128, doc. 4169.
224 Carmen Florea

It is unclear what happened in the end to the Cistercian nuns of Braşov who
were grouped around the chapel of the virgin martyr Catherine. The surviving
tax registers of the town inform us in 1480 and again in 1490 that near this
chapel, in the Katharinenhof, lived nineteen women who belonged to the cate-
gory of the poor inhabitants of the town, although not to that of the extremely
poor. It has been argued that they embraced the way of life of the beguines,
leading a life in common and providing for themselves, since they were men-
tioned as weavers, wax makers, and one of them even as Schreiberin.48 The com-
plicated situation of female religious in this town with regard to their insti-
tutional affiliation thus complements our understanding of the local contexts
which decisively shaped the religious life ‘of the other half of Christendom’.
Transylvanian women living a monastic life in the late Middle Ages thus
had several choices they could opt for when deciding to join a religious order.
On the one hand, the examples investigated here suggest that affiliation with
the Cistercian and Dominican Order was available to well-to-do women, most
likely those who were young and unmarried. On the other, association with the
Franciscans, particularly with the Third Order that the Observants supervised,
appears to have been favoured by women who found themselves in a vulner-
able condition because of their widowhood, old age, or even illness. Whilst the
surviving source material is neither generous nor does it take into account all
female communities which have been attested in medieval Transylvania, it can
nonetheless be observed that female monasticism was primarily linked with
towns and articulated in direct connection with the specificities of urban reli-
gious life.

48 
Philippi, ‘Die Unterschichten der Siebenbürgischen Stadt Braşov (Kronstadt)’, pp. 671–73.
‘For they wanted us to serve them’ 225

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